PAKISTAN: Abducted and forced into a Muslim marriage – IRIN Report.

KARACHI, 27 February 2012 (IRIN – Integrated Regional Information Networks) – Sixteen-year-old Ameena Ahmed*, now living in the town of Rahim Yar Khan in Pakistan’s Punjab Province, does not always respond when her mother-in-law calls out to her.

“Even after a year of `marriage’ I am not used to my new name. I was called Radha before,” she told IRIN on a rare occasion when she was allowed to go to the corner shop on her own to buy vegetables.

Ameena, or Radha as she still calls herself, was abducted from Karachi about 13 months ago by a group of young men who offered her ice-cream and a ride in their car. Before she knew what was happening, she was dragged into a larger van, and driven to an area she did not know.

She was then pressured into signing forms which she later found meant she was married to Ahmed Salim, 25; she was converted to a Muslim after being asked to recite some verses in front of a cleric. She was obliged to wear a veil. Seven months ago, Ameena, who has not seen her parents or three siblings since then and “misses them a lot”, moved with her new family to southern Punjab.

“The abduction and kidnapping of Hindu girls is becoming more and more common,” Amarnath Motumal, a lawyer and leader of Karachi’s Hindu community, told IRIN. “This trend has been growing over the past four or five years, and it is getting worse day by day.”

He said there were at least 15-20 forced abductions and conversions of young girls from Karachi each month, mainly from the multi-ethnic Lyari area. The fact that more and more people were moving to Karachi from the interior of Sindh Province added to the dangers, as there were now more Hindus in Karachi, he said.

“They come to search for better schooling, for work and to escape growing extremism,” said Motumal who believes Muslim religious schools are involved in the conversion business.

“Hindus are non-believers. They believe in many gods, not one, and are heretics. So they should be converted,” said Abdul Mannan, 20, a Muslim student. He said he would be willing to marry a Hindu girl, if asked to by his teachers, “because conversions brought big rewards from Allah [God]. But later I will marry a `real’ Muslim girl as my second wife,” he said.

According to local law, a Muslim man can take more than one wife, but rights activists argue that the law infringes the rights of women and needs to be altered.

Motumal says Hindu organizations are concerned only with the “forced conversion” of girls under 18. “Adult women are of course free to choose,” he said.

“Lured away”

Sunil Sushmt, 40, who lives in a village close to the city of Mirpurkhas in central Sindh Province, said his 14-year-old daughter was “lured away” by an older neighbour and, her parents believe, forcibly converted after marriage to a Muslim. “She was a child. What choice did she have?” her father asked. He said her mother still cries for her “almost daily” a year after the event.

Sushmat is also concerned about how his daughter is being treated. “We know many converts are treated like slaves, not wives,” he said.

According to official figures, Hindus based mainly in Sindh make up 2 percent of Pakistan’s total population of 165 million. “We believe this figure could be higher,” Motumal said.

According to media reports, a growing number of Hindus have been fleeing Pakistan, mainly for neighbouring India. The kidnapping of girls and other forms of persecution is a factor in this, according to those who have decided not to stay in the country any longer.

“My family has lived in Sindh for generations,” Parvati Devi, 70, told IRIN. “But now I worry for the future of my granddaughters and their children. Maybe we too should leave,” she said. “The entire family is seriously considering this.”

*not her real name

Courtesy: IRIN. (updated on 02/03/2012).

How many Hindus are grasping in Pakistan in front our vacant look? SHAME.

Pakistan is the worst place on earth; for women of any religion, for Christians, Hindu’s & Sikhs (are there even any Sikhs left there?) Paki muslims also kill ahmyddiah muslims, hazara ethnic tribal peoples; balochistani muslims; they’re just the most disgusting and murderous people on earth. First they start with the religious groups, then as those decline to almost zero, they zero in on the ETHNIC groups – they want everyone to be a clone and just like everyone else – no difference in clothing – no nothing. I HATE THEM.

England made a big fat mistake immigrating so many pakiastani muslims into their country; but if they get screwed over, it’s their own fault! I read somewhere that the immigrants from Pakistan outnumber Indian Hindu/Sikh immigrants at least 200 to 1 – and the main reason is that they bribe people to get VISA’s. Indians cause no problems, wherever they migrate to; united states, europe, australia – we never read articles about indians raping, killing, gangs of roving indians assaulting people – IT’S ALWAYS MUSLIMS !!!

I despise Islam and the people who follow it. My prayers are with the Hindus and Sikhs of India. Some of us DO CARE and we are aware that it is happening, my friends. I try to tell people, I don’t know what else I can do. In Sweden they have made it all but impossible to even criticize a filthy muslim. And steadily bringing in Afghans and Somalians who commit gang rape the week they get here. Just awful.